Bitcoin is currently trading at around $8,100, after having reached a high of more than $19,000 just not too ago. Other cryptocurrencies have floundered recently as well. In what some will inevitably deem a knee jerk reaction, Goldman Sachs is saying that most cryptocurrencies are likely to lose all value.
The reason, according to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research Steve Strongin, is because cryptocurrencies do not have any intrinsic value to begin with.
"Whether any of today’s cryptocurrencies will survive over the long run seems unlikely to me, although parts of them may evolve and survive," Strongin said. "Because of the lack of intrinsic value, the currencies that don’t survive will most likely trade to zero."
In time, Strongin says cryptocurrencies will be compared to the internet bubble of the late 1990s.
"Very few companies that existed then went on to become even more valuable. Amazon did—but in a completely different form. Google—a big winner today—had only just been formed at the time," Strongin added.
In other words, it's not likely that Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any number of existing cryptocurrencies will survive, as he dismisses the notion that being one of the first carries any sort of advantage.
That said, he does concede that even though we are in the midst of a "speculative bubble," there is still the potential for current prices to keep increasing "for a handful of survivors." Just don't pin your hopes on it.
"At the same time, it probably does mean that most, if not all, will never see their recent peaks again," Strongin said.
If Strongin is right, it could mean some normalization in the GPU market. The demand for GPUs created by cryptocurrency mining has left PC gamers choosing between waiting to upgrade or paying a inflated price for a graphics cards, or buying a prebuilt system.
On the flip side, Bitcoin's bubble, and by extension all cryptocurrencies, have so far proved gloom and doom predictions wrong. On top of that, if other cryptocurrencies pop up to replace the ones that exist today, we could be looking at a GPU shortage all over again.
Then again, the US dollar has no intrinsic value either.
